The Cornerstone Wedding Chapel at 233 N. Appleton St. in Appleton is nearing the end of its renovation after disaster. / Maureen Wallenfang/Post-Crescent Media

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Maureen Wallenfang

Post-Crescent Media

Michelle and Scott Berken had an uneasy feeling. In mid-December, they saw cracks in the ceiling of their Cornerstone Wedding Chapel at 233 N. Appleton St. in Appleton. They roped it off and called their insurance company, asking its investigator to take a look.

The 160-year-old building, near the Appleton Public Library, houses the chapel, a fellowship hall and their family’s upstairs living quarters. They’ve owned the building since 2002.

But before the insurance inspector arrived, Michelle Berken felt rumbling under her feet and heard the frightening sounds of crashing and breaking glass. The ceiling of the chapel had fallen down, taking with it the chandeliers, damaging some pews and destroying the carpet.

“It was devastating. I thought the whole building was coming down,” she said. “I ran downstairs and saw that the ceiling was completely down and on the pews. I could feel the wind.”

It could have been worse, she said, if anyone had been in the chapel. “The main thing is I’m grateful that no one was hurt.”

“I’ve never seen anything that extreme,” said Howard Hazen, project manager for Badgerland Restoration & Remodeling, which was hired to do the fixes. “The (insurance company) engineer couldn’t even figure out what it was that caused it. There was no leaking roof, so the final determination was that it was just the weight of the ceiling that made it come down.”

Over the next three months, the Berkens began the slow process of repairing the chapel and moving winter weddings to other facilities, including the Fox River Baptist Church and Radisson Paper Valley Hotel. They made sure the costs to move weddings were covered down to decorations and invitations. The church that leased the chapel on Sundays temporarily moved its worship services to the fellowship hall.

“We’ve been struggling getting everything back on its feet,” Berken said. “The chapel will be completely renovated, but the hardest part was to keep the quaint old church feel. I loved the old chandeliers and the red carpet. I was thinking about doing some renovations, but this wasn’t how I wanted to go about doing it.”

They’ll be fully back in business when the dry wall is up, plaster redone and painted, new brown carpet installed, refinished pews put back in place and new chandeliers hung. Everything should be done in the next few weeks, and they’ll have a public open house in late May.

Berken said 90 percent of the renovation costs were covered by insurance. So far, the insurance company paid $197,000 for the redo plus $45,000 for asbestos abatement. She estimates they’ll put $15,000 to $20,000 in themselves for uncovered costs.

A couple getting married in the renovated building this spring is looking forward to the improvements.